Smoking 'stubbed out' in North

Smokers in the North East of England could face a crackdown in pubs and clubs if health chiefs get their way.

The Northumberland, Tyne and Wear

Strategic Health Authority have applied for a £5 million funds boost to help set up a new office for tobacco control in the North East.

The move could see the introduction of Californian-style restrictions on lighting up in an area where nearly a third of adults are thought to be regular smokers.

If successful, smokers could face bans on smoking in pubs, clubs and restaurants in areas such as Newcastle and Sunderland.

Tobacco-related health problems are much higher in these areas than elsewhere in the country. Mortality rates from lung cancer were 36 per cent higher for men and 66 per cent higher from women in the region, he added.

Dr Eugene Milne, deputy medical director of the authority, said the most outstanding example of combating smoking had been in California where, since a law banning smoking in public places was passed in 1988, smoking had fallen by 50 per cent compared with 20 per cent in the rest of the country.

He said the authority hoped similar success could be achieved in the North East. "There is no reason why we couldn't become like California. Once people stop laughing they will say yes, actually that's true," he said.

A bid has been submitted to the European Public Health Fund, Dr Milne went on, and the scheme was planned to begin next year, even if the money from Europe is not made available.

A spokeswoman for smokers' lobby group Forest described the potential ban on smoking as "outrageous".

She said: "Smokers are paying an extortionate amount for the product that they use. They pay for a disproportionate amount of the public purse."

She said it was wrong that this money should then be used to "persecute and punish" smokers by not allowing them to light up.